Hi Alpha
please let me clarify one point you made.. you said "those who earned it" referring to Salvation.

This is a common and tragic misconception about what it means to know God. Please oh please... read this.

21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.(Romans 3:21 etc)

This is the key.....'justified FREELY by His grace'. How ? Through the redemption that came by Christ...

We never have been nor ever will be 'worthy' in ourselves to stand before a holy God. We can only ever be 'born again'...renewed.. changed, transformed, saved... etc..

ROB.. I should give that a go some time. I fear though, that no matter what I say, it will boil down to a differing view of the incidents concerned. God did order the total 100% elimination of a whole people, but He did not order the elimination of 'any' people who are in our way. More as time and energy allows. I have addressed this, but ended up as per sentence 2 above.
I see the fatherhood and love of God most manifest in the life of my namesake..BOAZ.. (read Ruth) and I also see the downfall and misery of the human condition in David... murderer, adulterer, yet in the end totally repentant.."My sin is ever before me.. create in me a clean heart oh God" (Psalm 51)

Micheal.. your simple posts are most powerful, as the gospel should be. Your comments on the animal cruelty thread are outstanding.

Not called to Mohamed or Christ. Am all about treating myself and the world kindly.

Have three questions for BD.

1.Do people who have never heard of christ go to heaven?

2.Why was Michael4's post on the animal welfare thread so powerful - all he did was quote scripture and claim he cared about animals - he didn't offer to help in anyway. (Have been asking for email addresses of religious organisations to see if they are interested in animal welfare).

Which brings me to my question #3.

3. Who cares about the well being of animals more, Mohamed or Christ?

Peace

Hi Boaz,

Thanks for your words. Please pray for me and my family so that we can remain faithful witness to Him and to reflect Christ in our lives.

Michael.

Dear Scout

on question #1 Those who have not heard of Christ.

This is probably the single most vexing question for any caring Christian. The idea of people never having had even the chance to believe or hear going to an eternal lostness is to put it mildly 'saddening in the extreme'

I comfort myself with the confidence that an all knowing God does right. I don't try to put myself in the Lords position. For reading, I recommend the following, and perhaps you might be able to form your own conclusions on this.

Romans 2 with particular attention to verses 12-16
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=2&version=31

Its almost as if Paul is aware of this same question, and is reaching out for a glimmer of hope for the unevangelized. Anyway, have a read pls and see what you come up with.

On this subject Romans 9 is also relevant, but focuses more on the soveriegn right of the Creator to arrange creation as He sees fit. Not as heartwarming as the other reference.

#2 Micheal can answer that himself.

#3 I don't think its an issue of decisive import. Jesus always taught compassion and justice and I would judge Mohameds attitude by his treatment of humans let alone animals. Jesus did one 'violent' act during his ministry (chasing the money changers from the Temple) but even this was more symbolic and deliberately to fufill a specific prophecy than simply 'outrage'. I certainly don't read of him doing anything like poking red hot irons in peoples eyes etc...as Mohamed did.

I cannot imagine spending time in quiet prayerful reflection with our Lord, and then being cruel to an animal.

Why are Christians not doing 'more' for animal welfare ? Good question. I'll put that on my list of things to protest about. My concern is more for the squashed condition of pigs than chickens.. though I do know a happy chicken when I see one. Sadly, happy chickens happily murder other chickens if they can get away with it :)